Jon Courtenay Grimwood
joncg.bsky.social
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
@joncg.bsky.social
Maltese born, Edinburgh novelist. ASD. Lapsed journalist. PhD St Andrews. Writes as Jonathan Grimwood, Jack G & Jon Courtenay G. Owns cat that’s a drug addict.
he/him

‘Triumphant…’ FT

http://jonathangrimwood.com
http://jackgrimwood.com
http://j-cg.co.uk
Rat determined to cling to the sinking SS Special Relationship until the waves close over our heads

'Starting with the US, he says the US and the UK “are close allies and close partners... He is determined to keep that relationship...'
(guardian)

#Starmer must know sycophancy is not working?
relationship.guardian
January 19, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
A joke for the history buffs:

Germany’s satirical newspaper @der-postillon.com titles: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student — They don’t want to get blamed again“
January 18, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Leicas. Outstanding heritage. Excellent lenses. Impeccable build quality. Ideal if you believe you might be about to be attacked by fascists.
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
January 17, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
you know this guy is a FOR REAL photographer because he's telling the story of his brutal, unconditional arrest by federal goons and can't help but slip in a gear review
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
January 17, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Given what's going on with the US and Greenland, de Gaulle is beginning to look astonishingly prescient.

(Which is not a sentence I thought I'd ever write.)
January 14, 2026 at 10:16 PM
I this Naomi Alderman's
"does this look like real content to a child?" is a really important critical point.
January 12, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Philosopher Richard Wollheim was called to give evidence on obscenity in the famous Oz trial in 1971. The prosecuting council asked him why he thought he was qualified to give a view. He answered something like ‘Given that I have already been called I can’t see how that question arises.’
January 11, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Aye. Took longer than it should to realise that all those tossing 'disrupt' around as a give-me-money buzzword, meant dismantle or destroy...
"Move fast and break things," say the people who, in an uncanny coincidence, are responsible for breaking the entire planet at a terrifying speed.
January 10, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
I personally think the responsibility should be to international law but I wasn’t a human rights barrister so what do I know
Starmer asked to respond to Trump breaking international law and seizing the leader of another sovereign nation replies that it is his "responsibility" to have a good relationship with the US President.

"I have stepped up that responsibility [and] I do get on with President Trump," he tells the BBC
January 3, 2026 at 5:26 PM
I'm going to start selling postcards of the hanging...
To which I say: Yes.
January 3, 2026 at 4:26 PM
You'd think the Guardian would be able to spell kidnapped...
January 3, 2026 at 3:25 PM
I see the terrorists are blowing up buildings in foreign countries again.
January 3, 2026 at 9:13 AM
File under, we never quite know what's coming next.

One of my favourite embassy reports. The UK ambassador in East Berlin reporting in after the fall of the Wall...
January 2, 2026 at 9:36 AM
Still stands...
December 31, 2025 at 10:34 PM
First saw it on a hotel television in New York, in a scuzzy joint just off Times Sq.

(Publishers' travel budgets weren't that big, even back then.)

RIP MTV

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-...
The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by TheBugglesVEVO
www.youtube.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I'm an emotionally-stunted Norwegian fisherman, who isn't sure why anything in his life happened the way it did, or if it happened at all, possibly.
I'm a heavily wooded overgrown, deep and winding Cornish ravine
Well, now I'm an English professor...
December 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Arrested for lacking the right papers? For protesting the slaughter of the innocents? For suggesting Starmer is in hock to Pharisees who've cornered the global market in loaves and fishes?

The public wants to know...
December 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Anecdata also suggests writer's conventions are full of people who want to write books

(It helps to have read in the area, have something to say, have put in the grunt work, worked out what you want to write, and why you're the person to write it...
And, even then, it's often/mostly down to luck.)
This shit is made up, actually
December 26, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Happy Christmas to all those celebrating!

A Mughal virgin and child, by Ghulam Shah Salim before 1605, after an engraving by Flemish artist Bernard van Orley (1492-1542). Dedication to Prince Shah Salim who became the emperor Jahangir 1695–27.
December 25, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Hive mind (niche):
Does anyone have a good julebolle recipe?
December 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
December 19, 2025 at 4:41 PM
File under (much) better late than never...
NEW: David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young women were revealed 🚨
David Walliams dropped by publisher over 'inappropriate behaviour' towards women
www.thenational.scot
December 19, 2025 at 4:58 PM
And almost oppressively insulting in its contempt for anyone with photosensitivity or migraine...
December 18, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
The fact is no presenter has ever had to leave the BBC for expressing conservative views, or even explicitly endorsing a right-wing party.

Was never a problem for Jeremy Clarkson. Was never a problem for Andrew Neil. Was never a problem for Alan Sugar
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Only if it was through an ouija board. She liked ouija boards.
IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
www.independent.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM